About 4 years ago I had an amazing meal at Il Confalone, which is located on viccolo del Confalone, off Via Giulia. It's a very tiny seafood restaurant--a romantic setting that's perfect for a couple or a small group.

We put ourselves in our waiters hands and had a pasta course that included a fettuccini with half of a crab (which more than filled me up) and a fish course. There may have been an appetizer and dessert, but I can hardly remember. But it was all delicious.

Throughout our stay in Rome, we discovered that waiters brought us what we see in the US described as "Italian bread" while the Romans were all eating this delicious looking flat bread. We finally asked the waiter at Il Confalone for the bread that the rest of the tables had--it's Roman focaccia (looks more like a pita than what we think of in the US as focaccia...the ingredients are similar to what you'd find in a very short, buttery Chicago-style pizza crust, then it's brushed with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper before baking...I dream of this focaccia).

By the end of our meal, we struck up a conversation with the two Roman men at the table adjacent to us. They were friends of the owner and one of the kept his private stash at the restaurant, so they offered my boyfriend and I shots of their grappa. (I stuck to the limoncella...grappa is just a little too strong for me ) Il Confalone is located between the Tiber and Campo di Fiori, and we'd rented an apartment on the opposite side of Campo di Fiori. I can still picture us walking back "home" down the Roman cobblestone streets after that delicious dinner. (And I still marvel to this day that we managed to find our way back to the apartment...it's a good thing we ate at Il Confalone after we'd been in Rome for a few days.)